jordyn

I had the opportunity to eat at Gary Danko last Saturday night. I've been trying to get in here on all of my visits to San Francisco lately, but because I generally take my trips fairly spontaneously, it's been difficult to get reservations. Fortunately, this time I was planning my trip around my reservation at the French Laundry on the previous night; Gary Danko has the same two calendar months in advance reservation policy, so it was straightforward to secure my reservation the next day. When we arrived, we were shown immediately to our table. The room has an intensely masculine feel, with dark wood and large abstract paintings in muted tones such as grey and brown. Tables were generally well-spaced, but the walls are lined with semi-circular banquettes that often make for slightly awkward seating arrangements--in one case, a table for two had the diners separated by nearly six feet of table, while we were crammed into a space almost right on top of the party next to us. The restaurant seemed to be very proud of its Relais Gourmand and Mobil five star status. Every member of the front of house staff wore two shiny golden pins reminding diners of the awards. Throughout the evening, service seemed equally practiced and considered. Wait staff used very precise diction in what seemed to be carefully scripted sentences. All this gave the meal a slightly surreal feel. Fortunately, despite some awkward pacing (some courses were served nearly on top of each other; at other times, there was an awkardly long wait for food) service was extremely competent, with wait staff always aware of our desires, the progress of our meal, and every other detail that needed attention through the course of the dinner. The format of the menu at Gary Danko is interesting, and reminds me somewhat of the approach taken by March in New York. The menu is made up of five sections (Appetizers, Fish and Seafood, Meat and Game Birds, Cheese, and Desserts). Diners can make up a meal of three, four or five courses by making selections from any of the sections, and it's possible to select more than one item from the "Appetizers" and "Fish and Seafood" categories. Pricing is fixed based on the number of courses ($55 for three, $64 for four and $74 for five), and there is a pre-composed "Chef's Tasting Menu" based entirely on selections from the main menu. One interesting, and nice, feature of Gary Danko is that the restaurant offers a wine pairing option with any menu, for an additional $42 (this is the price for five courses, and it may be cheaper with fewer courses). One glass of wine is provided with each course. Below, I've indicated the selections of both my dining companion and myself, as well as the wines that they were paired with. 1. Amuse bouche: Lobster bisque with poached Thai red snapper and mango. 2. Sweet White Corn Soup with Alaskan Black Cod and Basil Oil. 2001 Etude Pinot Gris -AND- Lobster Salad with mango, Avocado, Watercress and Lemon-Curry Vinaigrette 2001 Bailley Sancerre 3. Seared Scallops with Leek Potato Puree, Shiitake Mushrooms and Sauce Marechal 2000 Paul Michael Chardonnay -AND- Black Summer Truffle Risotto with Lobster, Corn, Tomato and Rosemary Oil Mystery Viognier whose name I forgot to write down 4. Roast Maine Lobster with Morel Mushrooms, Asparagus, Potato Puree and Tarragon ??1999 Albert Morot, Cent-Vignes (Beaune)?? -AND- Moroccan Spiced Squab with Chermoula, Orange-Cumin Carrots 1999 Copain Syrah, Eaglepoint Ranch 5. A Selection of Farmhouse and Artisinal Cheeses 1997 Recioto della Calpolicella Classico, Guiseppe Lonardi 6. Flambeed Strawberries with Lavender Angel Food Cake and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream 1997 Vin de Paille d'Arbois, Caveau des Capucins, Domaine Rolet Generally, the food was very good. The interesting flavor combinations, such as the introduction of curry into the lobster salad, worked quite well (in the case of the lobster salad, the curry was balanced by the acidity of the vinegarette against the sweeter lobster meat and fruits) and ingredients were generally top notch. The risotto was perhaps somewhat overcomplicated, with the relatively stronger flavors on the plate clamoring for attention and overwhelming the lobster. I was fairly impressed with the wine pairings. I found the wines to be of a higher quality than the usual by-the-glass selections at most restaurants and, with the exception of the chardonnay, paired quite nicely with the food. It is always enjoyable to be introduced to new wines that I would not normally order, and the sommelier was very eager to discuss the wines. Overall, a good meal. I think it is without question that Gary Danko stands as one of the top few restaurants in San Francisco (along with Masa's and possibly Charles Nob Hill). Both Masa's and Charles Nob Hill are at their best with longer, chef-selected tasting menus, so for nights when you want a shorter meal or more control over the direction, Gary Danko may be the best.

I'm certainly willing to cut you some slack, because I haven't researched this subject directly either, but I think what Wilfrid and Toby and I are trying to argue is that your premise doesn't seem likely to be bourne out by additional research. The fundamental argument that you're trying to make is that France has a better cuisine than other countries partly because it was travelled through more than other countries. (It's possible the extent of your claim is that France has a good cuisine partly because ocassional visitors came to France and dropped off recipes. If this is the extent of your claim, you're almost certainly correct, but it's a pretty obvious and not particularly interesting idea.) Many other countries seem likely to have had just as much, if not more, traffic through them. I know you'll say that other countries did not have the requisite natural resources to take advantage of this, but I think the natural resources have more to do with it than the travellers crossing the country. I could make the argument that France has good food because they had a huge navy and the quality of the terroir allowed them to make all of the food that their sailors learned about out at sea. The second half of my claim subsequently becomes convenient cover when people correctly point out that other countries had much bigger navies. "Of course England and the Netherlands and Portugal had better navies," I could acknowledge, "but they couldn't take advantage of all the recipes the sailors were learning." In reality, France wasn't so good at the whole boat thing, but they do have a lot of nice ingredients that grow there. Actually, I don't take issue at all with the idea of French gastronomic dominance. I just think you're not onto the right reasons why it happened. Other hypotheses (some suggested by you, even) seem more likely: 1) The French terroir is just better than everyone else's. 2) The French penchant for classification made it easier to formalize and transmit quality cooking techniques. 3) Because the French didn't have a good navy, they were forced to develop local products as opposed to an import/export economy. 4) France has a greater variety of climates and growing patterns than most other countries.

In addition to providing a listing of restaurants within a given town, the website also lets you show restaurants within a certain distance of the place. If the resulting list is too long, you can narrow it by specifying other characteristics (such as number of stars). This won't let you search on an area quite as broad as Gascony, but it does allow a look at the surrounding area for your starting and ending points on any given day.

Finally, after several weeks of trying to secure a reservation, and two long months of post-reservation anticipation, I had the chance to eat at the French Laundry last Friday. Despite some of the slightly less than enthusiastic comments in this thread, I went to Yountville with high expectations. Fortunately, my patience was rewarded and my expectations were more than met. We'll start with the most disappointing part of the evening. We arrived at 7:30, only to be told that our reservation was actually at 8:30. Now that I'm home and reviewing my notes, I know that indeed my reservation was at 8:30. Unfortunately, when the restaurant called to confirm the reservation two days before dinner, they indicated the 7:30 time and I simply made a note of it and proceeded to show up at that time. Since this situation was at least partly my fault for not double-checking the confirmation against my notes on the original reservation, I certainly can't hold too much of a grudge, but I felt like the restaurant didn't handle the situation very well. The hostess implied that there was no way the incorrect time could have been given to me, and basically shooed me out the door to sit in the garden and drink something. I felt like under the circumstances we could have been dealt with a little more delicately, and feel like at a lot of places I would have been comped our drinks in a similar situation. Fortunately, eventually things were smoothed out: our first amuse was brought to us in the garden, and by the time we sat down our waiter was apologizing for the whole mess. Perhaps expecting us to be impatient because of our wait, the food came out very quickly, with courses served with practically no gap between them. I would have preferred a slightly slower paced--something closer to the four hours that others have mentioned here as opposed to the approximately three hours that our meal lasted. One final service nit-pick: after talking to us about an initial bottle of white wine, the sommelier wandered off, never to be heard from again. Eventually, another fellow helped us out, initially indicating he'd bring the sommelier back, and finally helping us make a selection himself. These points aside, the service throughout the night was generally smooth and professional. The staff was very knowledgeable about the dishes and was usually around when we needed and not hovering near the table when we didn't. Onto food. Here's the tasting menu that we enjoyed: 1. Light round pastries stuffed with cheese (sadly, I can't remember the type of cheese) 2. "Ice cream cone" of salmon tartare and creme fraiche 3. Chilled Sunchoke Soup with "Gelee de Pomme et Caviar" 4. Baby Leek Salad with Perigord Truffles and Baby Garden Mache -and- (only one of us opted for the foie gras, a $25 supplement) "Terrine" of Moulard Duck "Foie Gras" with Perigord Truffles, Truffle Salad and Toasted "Brioche" 5. Sauteed Medallion of Chatham Bay Cod with a "Ragout" of Cranberry Beans and Rosemary-infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil 6. Sweet Butter Poached Maine Lobster, Yukon Gold Potato "Fondant", Herb Salad and Lobster Vinaigrette 7. "Ravioli de Ris de Veau" with Forest Mushrooms and "Creme de Champignons Sauvages" 8. Saddle of Elysian Fields Farm Lamb "Roti Entier" with Braised Baby Fennel Bulb, Roasted Sweet Peppers and a Carmelized Lemon-infused Sauce 9. "Sancerois" with Bing Cherries and Celery Branch Salad 10. Peach Sorbet with Fresh Fruit Cocktail "En Gelee" 11. "Opera" Cake: Almond Cake with Coffee Butter Cream, Chocolate "Ganache" and Coffee "Anglaise" 12. Mignardise There was not a single dish that I did not thoroughly enjoy. For me, this is unusual in a three course meal--to make it through this many courses without finding fault is a real achievement. And, of course, several of the dishes were real standouts: rosemary was an unusual accompaniment to the cod, but it was subtle enough not to overwhelm a beautiful piece of fish and actually played off the delicate flavors of the cod beautifully; and I can still taste the delicate flavor of the cheese pastry puffs, the perfect first course which heightened the senses and awakened the palate. Even items that I don't usually like, such as salmon tartare and caviar, were both compelling and good. This fact alone makes the meal something of a revelation.

This assumes, of course, that many poor people were travelling several countries away. I can't believe this happened all that often in the days in which the principal mode of transportation was walking or horse-drawn cart. Today a lot of poor people don't go very far from their homes, and we have all sorts of relatively inexpensive yet quick ways of doing it (car, bus, sometimes even plane). If getting from Delft to Sevilla involved a four month walk, you'd need a really good reason to take that trip. I'm also with Wilfrid in thinking that France was unlikely to have been much of a crossroads in Europe. In addition to the fact that only a limited number of routes actually make sense through France, it doesn't seem like a particularly important place in geopolitical terms through much of European history.

Singapore is an airline that has made the decision to do a very good job for its premium passengers (first class and, to a lesser extent, business class), and to treat its coach passengers like chattel. The fact that their premium cabins deliver such good service, and that they rate high on the "gee whiz" factor by incorporating a lot of technology gets them good press as well as a good word-of-mouth reputation that encourages people who don't know any better to sit in the back of their planes. I get the impression this wasn't the case five or ten years ago. I'd say British Air, the other example that you cite, is another airline that meets the same description. Some years ago, when prices were generally higher, both BA and Singapore probably delivered a good product in both coach and the premium cabins. More recently, as the cost of economy class travel has decreased, most airlines have cut back significantly on the amenities in coach. Post September 11, this trend has crept up into the premium cabins, at least on U.S. carriers. I'm surprised to hear that Beachfan has found recent meals in United's business class to be better than in the past--while they certainly haven't declined in quality the same way that American's have, they're still not particularly good. And many of the luxury touches that used to go into the experience (Godiva chocolate, decent champagne) are now absent, along with the metal dinner knives.

Compass was reviewed in the New York Times today and received two stars. While I enjoyed myself at Marika, I noticed several elements that Asimov described in his meals that were not present in mine. Specifically, this entire paragraph: "Dinner at Compass is full of engaging touches. Mr. Mehta begins the dessert course with a dish of candied fennel seeds, a pleasant mouth freshener, and he ends it with a tumbler of rich, anise-scented hot chocolate, served with house-made lemon marshmallows. Wines are poured properly in good glassware. A manager makes a point each meal of introducing himself to each table, as if he wants a personal relationship with each diner." No manager ever introduced himself to my table. I saw no dish of candied fennel seeds or anise-scented hot chocolate. Is this an example of newspaper critics being treated one way and the rest of us another way?

Not in London, and probably too late to be useful, but I've recently become curious about d'Yquem, so I'll note the following places where I've noticed d'Yquem by the glass recently in the hopes that this thread might become a bit of a resource. Union Square Cafe has glasses of the 1990 vintage for $49. Restaurant Imperial in Vienna has glasses of '93 for 30 Euro (small glasses).

Not in London, and probably too late to be useful, but I've recently become curious about d'Yquem, so I'll note the following places where I've noticed d'Yquem by the glass recently in the hopes that this thread might become a bit of a resource. Union Square Cafe has glasses of the 1990 vintage for $49. Restaurant Imperial in Vienna has glasses of '93 for 30 Euro (small glasses).

Thanks, Steve. I live on the Upper West Side, so the wine shop in Chelsea Market seems like the best bet of those that you mentioned, geography-wise. Do you know anything about the reliability and quality of these services?

I've been thinking lately about starting a small collection of wine. Unfortunately, because I have a typcial tiny New York apartment there is nowhere for me to store any reasonable amount of wine. I've read some places about commercial wine storage, where you can pay someone to cellar your wine for you. Does anyone do this? If so, please share your experiences. Can anyone make a recommendation for such a service in the New York City area?

Although I am a life long member of the Clean Plate Club, I feel a need to state the obvious: You do not have to finish everything served to you, good, bad or indifferent. Indeed. I'm in the Clean Plate Club hall of shame, as I almost always leave something on the plate. In my mind, the "too much food" I referred to is the extra food that I don't eat but that I paid for. I'd rather have a smaller portion of good food that I actually eat than a whole lot of food that I don't eat.

Singapore's really nothing special in coach. Practically everyone has got the personal video screens these days, and Singapore packs you in tighter in coach that many other airlines. Their business class product is quite good, and even comes with acceptable food, and I've heard very good things about their first class, but have not yet had the chance to try it. Over the past 18-ish months, I've flown something like 300,000 miles spread amongst a bunch of different airlines and in every class of service. I'm struggling to recall a single meal that I would categorize as "good". Air New Zealand in business class probably makes it, as does Lufthansa in first (on the other hand, Lufthansa's business class meals are "not so good" and their meals in coach are downright unappealing). As indicated above, Singapore's business class meals are adequate, as are United's international first class meals. Most other meals I've had in the air have ranged from "mediocre" to "impossible to eat". I like SAS in coach, not because the food is particularly good, but because they give you warm rolls, which at least earns them bonus points for effort. As others have mentioned, U.S. carriers generally suck at food in coach, and post 9-11 this is true in business class as well. Only international first class retains much of a "gee whiz" factor with premium brands like Dom Peringon, and even there amenities like caviar carts have disappeared in recent months. Overall, food in the sky isn't so good, although we could start doing "plane reports" instead of "restaurant reports" if people were really interested.

I'm with Bux. I like small portions. If the food's good, this lets me eat lots of different things. If the food's bad, having a lot of bad food isn't any better than having a little bad food. I far too often end up with too much food than too little, so maybe my appetite is just not hearty enough.

I just got back from five days in Bucharest. Like magnolia, I really wanted to like the food there, but had a tough time. Most of the food is very consistent in its heavy emphasis on fatty meats and bland starches, with very little to interest the pallate. First, a few general notes: 1) Service at Romanian restaurants is not good. It's generally extremely slow, and servers seemed loathe to even try to accomodate any slightly unusual requests. Here's an example of a conversation in a Romanian restaurant: "Can we slide these two tables together so that all six of us can sit together?" "No." "Well, it looks like we probably could by moving these chairs out of the way." "No. These are separate tables." Such conversations generally did not end up going in a productive direction. 2) Romanian wine is not good. I heard from a lot of Romanians that their wine was great, but I did not have a single glass of Romanian wine that I found drinkable, much less good. I don't drink beer, but people who drink both wine and beer seemed to think the beer was fine but the wine was not. 3) Vegetables generally were good. Things like salads and other dishes that emphasized the vegetable's natural flavor (as opposed to stuffed cabbage) were generally quite tasty. A Romanian told me that they were famous for their good vegetables, but this came shortly after a comment about their great wine, so I mostly discounted it. I ate several meals at Cuploa, in the Marriott. This was a totally typical chain hotel restaurant, expensive by Romanian standards, although fairly cheap compared to most U.S. hotel restaurants. Slightly better was Cascina, also in the Marriott. I only ate one meal here, but it seemed to be quite good. Service here was the slowest we experienced in Romania, though, which represents a special feat. More than half of our party ended up leaving long before orders were taken; those of us that did eat only got food because we took food from the antipasto bar. I also visited the Count Dracula Club, mentioned by James Prince, and was disappointed. The theme rooms resembled what you'd get at an American Halloween party more than anything authentically scary, the food was adequate but the typical Romanian fare, and service was slow even by Romanian standards. Two places I have positive things to say about are Aquarium, a very nice Italian restaurant with good if uncreative Italian food. Prices here were very high by Romanian standards, with entrees pushing their way into the $10-$20 range, but this was by far the best food I had in Romania. Service was generally quite good, and they had Italian wines (see my comments on Romanian wine above for why this was such a high note). Finally, Casa Doina was also quite nice. We were served Romanian food with a slightly greek feel, which was not exceptional, but certainly provided a more interesting range of flavors than most of the food in Romania. The restaurant is in a very pleasant outdoor space.

Bux: To the best of my knowledge, the menu is just called a "prix fixe" menu, not a tasting menu. I wrote up a brief report on Compass a few weeks ago, which I won't try to reitierate here, but I'll add the following comments: 1) The biscuts are indeed divine. 2) The prix fixe menu is an excellent value, and I actually found the entrees on the prix fixe menu more appealing. 3) Like Damian, I found the service extremely eager, but sometimes not so helpful. For him, the friendliness apparently overcame the minor technical glitches, but I was slightly less overwhelmed. Overall, a nice spot, particularly compared to the alternatives on the UWS.

Places in New York that I'd really like to go to, but haven't: 1) Blue Hill. I've been trying for weeks. Something always gets in the way, usually involving potential dinner companions not wanting to go. 2) 71 Clinton Fresh Food. Small, popular, far away. These factors have thus far made it impractical for me to visit. Other places that are somewhat less interesting, but that I've not yet made it to and still want to visit: 1) Babbo. Too popular for me. I'm no good at making reservations this far in advance for somwehre local, and there are always such good other choices that will actually take my business. 2) Prune. Once again, far away. 3) ADNY. Is it really worth the money? 4) Bouley. I have no excuse.

Perhaps inspired by KMPickard's question, I ate dinner at Compass on Saturday night. We just walked in at about 9:00 and had no problem getting a table; I've noticed that Compass seems to have generally good availability on OpenTable. Good for the customer; probably not so great for the restaurant. The room was hardly deserted, though, with roughly 70% of the tables full. The decor is modern and bright. Bright red, mostly, with red banquettes at some of the tables and a huge, red, abstract painting along the back wall. Service was fine, although not seamless. When heading to the table, I happened to be in front of the other two in my party, both women. Our host clumsily had me stand aside while pulling the table out and inviting the ladies to sit down. At a stuffy old school French restaurant, I might not be surprised for the "correct" order of seating to supercede the practicality of trying to get everyone to the table gracefully, but this restaurant looks like it is trying hard to be hip and young. Later, with no sommelier around, I asked our server if he could speak to the differences between the three types of Christom Pinot Noir on the wine list, he spent several minutes telling me about the geography of the Willamette Valley and about pinot noir in general before admitting he didn't know anything specific about any of the three. The food was encouraging, if not inspiring. My appetizer was gazpacho with pekytoe crab, which I found to be quite fine, with chunks of fruit submurged within a pool of pale tomato essence. I also tasted the white asparagus with snails and pea sprouts, which did a good job of highlighting the essential flavors of its component ingredients. Perhaps it was simply my mood at the time, but many of the most appealing-sounding main dishes appeared on the $30 prix fixe menu. (This menu was not available to us as it was after 6:30 PM on Saturday, the only time of the week when the prix fixe is not an option, but it turned out we could order the dishes a la carte as well.) Hanger steak in a red wine sauce was straightforward and a good piece of meat. Soft shell crabs tempura with corn chowder and basil coulis seemed somewhat over-complicated, and the constituent ingredients were not really pulled together on the plate, but each component was in fact quite nice. I ate the pork loin with vidalia onion, which seemed too sweet to me, and I have a palate that generally favors sweet food. A whole vidalia onion was served next to the meat, though, and it was excellent: slightly crisp, and bursting with juice and flavor as I bit into it. We were in a bit of a rush, but had to run out without ordering dessert. This was disappointing, because the desserts had an unusual bent, but sounded quite good. Lemongrass panna cotta is the one that everyone seems to pick up on, but it was actually relatively tame in an eclectic cast of after-dinner treats featuring basil cakes, pop rocks and tamarind sauce. Overall, I continue to be very happy that Compass is in the neighborhood, because it's one of the few restaurants on the Upper West Side that seems to be attempting to provide a quality dining experience. There's little about Compass other than geography to recommend it over many of the good restaurants in Manhattan, but there's nothing that would keep me from returning again, either.

Steve: I've not had the chance to try the crab with creamy spicy sauce, because I am too lazy to get a reservation and consequently only ever eat at Next Door, where that dish is not available. However, the rock shrimp tempura in creamy spicy sauce (instead of ponzu sauce, as you seem to prefer it) is definitely one of my favorite dishes. Have you tried the rock shrimp w/ creamy spicy sauce and, if so, how would you compare it to the crab?

I haven't been there since the restaurant was reincarnted as Compass, but I ate there several times during its Marika phase. The food is quite nice, and actually quite interesting when compared to the other options in the neighborhood, but I can't imagine including it in a food itinerary of New York if you're visiting from out of town. Compared to other options on the Upper West Side, the food is distinguished, but compared to other options in New York City, it's really nothing special.

This is purely from a consumer perspective, but I use opentable.com all the time. It is one of my favorite websites, as it makes the reservation-making process vastly easier, especially now tht there is a decent selection of restaurants. I am probably an anomaly, but when thinking about where to eat dinner, I often check to see where reservations are available on opentable, and only make phone calls to set up reservations if I *really* can't find anywhere acceptable there. This ends up meaning that restaurants have a significantly greater chance of getting my business as a result of being on opentable, particularly if they are any good.

I'll confess I didn't partake of the "tidal pool" when I visited Ilo, although one of my dining companions did. My recollections is that the various sea creatures are raw when brought out, but then they pour some hot broth into the bowl tableside, which will have the effect of cooking them shabu-shabu style. This seems to be confirmed by William Grimes's review of Ilo, in which he mentions the dish.

Ilo's "tidal pool" features a variety of odd creatures, including sea urchin.

It does. 24 hours advance notice. Time Out did an article about this dish and various others that require advance ordering: Click on this link to read more.

There are many many places that take reservations *very* late. I just did a search on OpenTable for June 28 (a Friday) at 11:45 PM to discover the following restaurants with either 11:45 or midnight seatings: Artisanal B. Smith's Brasserie Cafe Mozart Chicama China Grill Compass Decade Hudson Cafeteria Jane Justin's Lundy's Time Square Mirchi One C.P.S. Opia Park Avenue Cafe Pescatore Pipa Rain East Red Cat Sazerac House Shelly's Sugar Hill Bistro Sushi Samba Tamarind Tangerine Thom Village Triomphe More places served as late as 11:30: AZ Barolo Brasserie 8/12 Cafe Spice Estiatoria Milos Felidia Fontana di Trevi I Tre Merli Lola Nirvana Ouest Peasant Rainbow Grill Redeye Grill Revolution Trattoria Dell'Arte Via Oreto Open Table offered me reservations at a total of 127 places. Excluding The Screening Room and the Rainbow Room as not really restaurants, that leaves 125. Of these, only 39 (not even one third--31%) did not offer a table to me for 11:00 or later. My quick count of the above list indicates that 52 (41%) offer seatings at 11:30 or later, with 20 (16%) offering midnight seatings! Speaking of keeping the kitchen open late, last night in search of the elusive good restaurant open on Memorial Day that I don't need a reservation at, I dropped by Babbo at about 9:45. They indicated that I could wait an hour and be seated at one of their tables out front. 10:45 seemed like a surprisingly late time to be taking orders from people on a weekday night, but I guess this is the City That Never Sleeps. We ended up at Patria; we sat down at 9:55 and had to place our order before the kitchen "closed" at 10:00.